A Happy Homecoming

Last week was a big week for me. For several days I had been hugging some wonderful news to myself, all the while chasing about to pack a week's work into just three days before my other half and I were due to depart for a long weekend away in Prague. I had organised the trip as his Christmas surprise, timed as it was for early March to coincide with our 21st wedding anniversary, making the extravagance just a little more justifiable. As it happens the celebration was a joint one. Thursday morning arrived, bags were hastily tucked into the boot of the car, a brief farewell waved to the teens and off we went, just as that wonderful news broke on Twitter and Facebook. The Cotswolds Tourism Awards 2012 winners were made public 30 minutes before I hopped off to the Czech Republic. I felt a little like a traitor - off to play tourist in another country all the while overjoyed to have been honoured with the title "Cotswold Tourism Business of the Year 2012". It is my privilege to be the one who gets to write fun ways of encouraging people to explore, discover, appreciate and learn about all that Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds has to offer so to be rewarded with this award is humbling. Someone commented (rather naively) on my award's coloured  rinse. Perhaps they don't appreciate the link between our glorious honeyed stone and our sheep - but I love her. Please meet Cotsie, of whom I'm very proud.



Back in Prague, we had been told that four days was about right to take in the "Golden City". We departed armed with our guide to the Top 10 in almost every category you could imagine, from historical sites to restaurants, from attractions to things to avoid and from cafes to nightclubs. The city is compact enough to explore on foot and so we spent our days in walking shoes strolling the cobbles. For miles and miles we oooh'd and ahhh'd at the truly magnificent architecture, wishing we were more familiar with the history and development of the country and its people, soaking up the information shared in our guide book and hanging on every translation where given in English to explain what we were enjoying. It made me realise, in case I had for one moment forgotten, that a good route, with the best bits highlighted, an opportunity to engage with what you're seeing and a few gems of historical and cultural interest can really make a tourist's visit to a new destination (rather like a Treasure Trail in fact) #blatantplugwithawink 

As it happens, I'm clearly not the only one who agrees. We landed back in the UK last night. Having had only limited access to the internet since Thursday I powered up even as Stephen was driving back from the airport only to be greeted by a flurry of emails as is so often the case on a Sunday evening. This is the day when the majority of online answer submissions come in. At the end of every Trail we remind customers to submit their answer online for a chance to win the anual £1000 prizedraw. This is furthermore their opportunity to tell us what they thought, whether they would recommend us to a friend and, importantly, how we could improve our service. If I hadn't already had quite a wonderful week and a fabulous few days away, the weekend was topped off by these three comments, all from different happy Trailers on separate occasions from varying destinations across my patch:

"Really good and enjoyed it, keep doing what you are doing", "It was excellent just the way it was. Brilliant fun" and "You cannot improve on perfection". How lovely is that?

And so, back to work with renewed vigour. Happy days.



A Busman's Holiday

I think it's fair to say I put in a few too many late nights last week! I find I'm at my most creative when the house has gone quiet leaving just me and my laptop to whirr away into the wee small hours, and last week I was putting the finishing touches to That Project, the subject of last October's epic expedition - yes, The Cotswold Way Companion Trail is nearing publication and was keeping me up. That's the good news. The less than welcome outcome, however, of burning the midnight oil was a rather grumpy me by day, drained of meaningful conversation and with amends to make. And then I saw the weather forecast.....

Come Saturday it seemed I was right in my fatigue-induced and recent rather gloomy prediction that we haven't escaped winter at all, merely dodged it temporarily, and that the freeze was on it's way. Well that did it!, that and the fact that I'd been reviewing all the photographs of the Cotswold Way adventure of the hottest Autumn on record, and recalling the peace and exhilaration of the long distance walk. "Let's spend the day together on Sunday, just the two of us, while we can! Let's pack a scarf and a sarnie and just go!"

We decided to head 'out of patch' (which, for the uninitiated means not Gloucestershire) and towards the Malvern Hills. The fog was lingering and the temperature gauge reluctant to rise but undaunted we agreed to a route of around 12 miles or so and set off. You'll perhaps be wondering why this should be considered a Busman's Holiday? That's because, (gosh, it feels like confessing an addition) I couldn't resist the temptation and our walk was in fact .... a Treasure Trail. This time I disguised my thirst for clue solving in an offer to give my fellow Trail Writers from nearby Herefordshire and Worchestershire's best seller a winter once over. We do this, from time to time. The Malvern Hills Driving Trail is approx 12 miles all told but you may have spotted our deliberate mistake - normally it's driven, with a few hops and skips out of the car at strategic points along the way to crack a clue or twenty - but we wanted the walk. Thankfully it works just as well on foot and we had a great time. One of the highlights was meeting a family out and about following the same Treasure Trail. It was great to see Mum, Dad and the two children all engaged together, saying all the things that we Trail Writers love to hear - "such a great idea", "wish we'd found Treasure Trails sooner", "you should get them stocked in all the local hotels". We're working on it...

Yes, there's something very special about walking. People smile and say hello (it's as if a pair of boots makes you part of a new and friendly family), and the calories that accumulate on the pedometer are another bonus (surprising how many you can burn over 12 miles. Chuck in a hill or two and even a bar of chocolate is, for once, an almost sin-free treat). And the post expedition glow? I love the sense of achievement, the twinge of well used muscles and the fresh air induced great night's sleep that follows. So now I'm fully restored and back to my usual self. Maybe I could just sneak in a few hours late tonight being creative...ooops!